1 Corinthians 15

1 – 2

Now, brothers, I want you to remember the Gospel I brought to you. You received this Gospel, and you continue strong in it. And you are saved by this Gospel. But you must continue believing what I told you. If you do not, then you would have believed for nothing.

If you listen to unbelievers then you would have believed for nothing.

3. I passed on to you what I received. And this was the most important: that Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures say;

See Psalm 22, Isaiah 53:12.

4. that He was put in the tomb and was raised to life on the third day as the Scriptures say;

Genesis 22:5 and 8 and Hebrews 11:19 may be showing us that Abraham saw how the Lord would give Himself as a sacrifice on the same mountain that he was standing on and that God would bring Him back from the dead.

Abraham saw something that we did not see, otherwise why would he say that someday it would be seen? John 8:56

Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mountain of the LORD it will be [seen].” Genesis 22:14

The only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Matthew 12:39 – 40

Because He gives Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will keep on living. Isaiah 53:10

He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. Hosea 6:2

5 – 8

and that He showed himself to Peter and then to the twelve apostles.

After that, Jesus showed Himself to more than 500 of the believers at the same time. Most of them are still living today, but some have died. Then Jesus showed Himself to James and later to all the apostles. Last of all he showed himself to me—as to a person not born at the normal time.

Here are the witnesses in court that will witness that Jesus rose from the dead. If you want to go to court then ask the Pharisees and the soldiers what their story is (Matthew 28:15). Ask James who did not even believe in Jesus.

Ask Paul because he did not even expect or want to see Jesus. Paul was the last one to see the risen Christ. There is no other evidence of anyone else seeing Christ after Paul.

9. All the other apostles are greater than I am. This is because I persecuted the church of God. And this is why I am not even good enough to be called an apostle.

Paul is saying he deserves it if people say that he should not be an apostle.
He who is forgiven much, loves much. Luke 7:47

10. But God’s grace has made me what I am. And His grace to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles, but I was not really the one working. It was God’s grace that was with me.

Paul tried to make up for lost time so that the Lord did not save him for nothing.

11 – 12

So then it is not important if I preached to you or if the other apostles preached to you. We all preach the same thing, and this is what you believed. It is preached that Christ was raised from death. So why do some of you say that people will not be raised from death?

The Greeks taught that the body was holding the soul in prison, and the sooner the soul was set free by dying, the better off it would be. They said the body was evil and they cannot imagine a body that would continue to exist after death.

No matter what Paul and others disagree about, they do not disagree about the resurrection.

13. If no one will ever be raised from death, then Christ was not raised from death.

If you are going to allow this kind of thinking in the church then it means that we do not exist after death and life has no meaning.

14. And if Christ was not raised, then our preaching is worth nothing. And your faith is worth nothing.

Our faith would not have real meaning if there is nothing to live for after death. If Jesus did not raise from the dead then there is no way to prove that God had accepted the death of Jesus as the payment for our sins

15. And also, we will be guilty of lying about God. Because we have preached about him by saying that he raised Christ from death. And if people are not raised from death, then God never raised Christ from death.

We are a witness to Christ’s resurrection because we have been resurrected from the dead life we used to live.

16 – 18

If the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is for nothing; you are still guilty of your sins. And also, those in Christ who have already died are lost.

There would be nothing to live for but pleasure or the survival of the strongest, like animals. “If there is no God then everything is allowed.” Dostoyevsky

19. If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world.

Paul and the other disciples would have given up everything for nothing. Philippians 3:8, Mark 10:28

20. But Christ has truly been raised from death—the first one and proof that those who are asleep in death will also be raised.

Christ’s resurrection is a down payment of the resurrections that will come later.
21 – 22

Death comes to everyone because of what one man did. But the rising from death also happens because of one man. In Adam all of us die. In the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again.

Because [Adam] did not obey God, many became sinners. But because Jesus obeyed God, many will be made clear before God. Romans 5:19

23. But everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. When Christ comes again, those who belong to Him will be raised to life.

God does everything in order. Jesus was resurrected first, the dead in Christ follow. The word “comes” here is the word for the coming of a King

24. Then the end will come. Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers. And He will give the kingdom to God the Father.

If there are no people living in new bodies after death, then there are no people in the kingdom of Christ, which means that you are saying that there is no future kingdom and God’s promise about the future is not true. Revelation 20:4–6

25 – 26

Christ must rule until God puts all enemies under Christ’s control. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.

One of the enemies of Jesus is death.

You have put all things under His feet. For in putting all things under Him, He left nothing that is not under to Him. But now we do not yet see all things under Him. Hebrews 2:8

27. As David said, “God put all things under His control.” When it says that “all things” are put under Him, it is clear that this does not include God Himself. God is the one putting everything under Christ’s control.

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet. Psalm 110:1, Psalm 8:6

28. After everything has been put under Christ, then the Son Himself will be put under God. God is the One who put all things under Christ. And Christ will be put under God, so that God will be the complete ruler over everything.

There will be no end to the increase of His government. Isaiah 9:7

29. If the dead are never raised, then what will people do who are baptized [with a view to being dead]? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized [only with a view to being dead] ?

Baptism shows that we died to our old lives and we are raised to a new life with Christ. Paul is saying that it would not make sense if we were only baptized to show that we died if there is no new life.

Some Bible experts say that the Corinthians had a practice of getting baptized in place of someone who had died. If Paul would take such pains to explain how we should not even eat meat if it causes trouble for another brother, then it would make no sense for Paul to talk about a crazy idea that the Corinthians hand without showing that it was false. The original language supports the translation: “with a view to being dead.”

Some Mormons have used this verse to say that they need to contact the spirit of a dead person and ask his permission to be baptized for him. The Bible tells us to have no contact with the spirits of dead people.

The Christian church only practices things that were taught by Jesus, done in the book of Acts or found in the epistles.

30. And what about us? Why do we put ourselves in danger every hour?

Why would Paul go through all of the persecution and hard way of life if there is no resurrection?

31. I die every day. That is true, brothers, just as it is true that I brag about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Romans 8:33

32. If I fought wild animals in Ephesus the way other men do, I have gained nothing. If the dead are not raised, then, “Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we will die.”

Romans were not thrown to the animals so this does not mean that Paul was thrown to the lions. He is talking about men who fight animals for money. Paul is probably talking about the riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:23). See Isaiah 22:13.

33. Stop being deceived: “Bad friends will ruin good habits.”

Stop listening to the wrong people are, they will turn you out of the path. Paul is quoting a Greek poet which would be familiar to the Corinthians.

34. Wake up to your right way of thinking and stop sinning. I say this to shame you—some of you do not know God.

Agnostic means, “I do not know.” When someone tells you that they are an agnostic they are saying, “I do not know what I am talking about.”

35 – 38

But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?” Those are stupid questions. When you plant something, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow.

And when you plant it, what you plant does not have the same “body” that it will have later. What you plant is only a seed, maybe wheat or something else.

But God gives it a body that He has planned for it. And God gives each kind of seed its own body.

Nature teaches you about something dying and being replaced with something else.

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24

39. All things made of flesh are not the same kinds of flesh: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind, birds have another, and fish have another.

God has made our bodies so that they can live on the earth. He will make our new bodies in a different way for living in heaven.

40 – 41

Also there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the power of the heavenly bodies is one kind. The power of the earthly bodies is another kind.

The sun has one kind of power. The moon has another power, and the stars have another. And each star is different in its power.

Scientists used to say that all stars with the same. Now they know that some stars have a different amount of power and light than others. In the same way, our new bodies will have different degrees of glory. All stars are the same age because they were all created on the fourth day. Genesis 1:16

42. It is the same with the dead who are raised to life. The body that is “planted” will ruin and decay. But that body is raised to a life that cannot be destroyed.

The real me is not this body, the real me is a spirit inside of a body.

You do not know what kind of a spirit you are.
Luke 9:55

43. When the body is “planted,” it is without honor. But it is raised in glory. When the body is “planted,” it is weak. But when it is raised, it has power.

Part of the sowing may be the way we live our lives today.

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your bodies by this same Spirit living in you. Romans 8:11

44. The body that is “planted” is a physical body. When it is raised, it is a spiritual body.

There is a physical body and there is also a spiritual body. God has created so many different kinds of bodies. Why should we think it is amazing that we can only live in one type of body? The natural body is under the control of the flesh and the emotions but spiritual bodies are under the control of the Spirit

For we know that when this body we live in is taken away (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a body in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 Corinthians 5:1

45. It is written in the Scriptures: “The first man became a living soul.” But the last Adam became a spirit that gives life.

Adam was a soul living in a body. Jesus is a life–giving Spirit. Genesis 2:7

46. The spiritual man did not come first. It was the physical man who came first; then came the spiritual.

God created us in His image, so the natural body is like a copy of what the spiritual body would look like in the image of God. Genesis 1:26

He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears, but we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. 1 John 3:2

47 – 48

The first man came from the dust of the earth. The second man came from heaven. People belong to the earth. They are like the first man of earth. But those people who belong to heaven are like the man of heaven.

The natural man inherits the things of Adam, a born–again man inherits the things of Jesus.

49. We were made like the man of earth. So we will also be made like the Man of heaven.
Romans 8:29

50. I tell you this, brothers: Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God. A thing that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never is destroyed.

You should be able to understand that the body you are living in now cannot live in heaven. In the same way that we cannot travel in outer space without special equipment we should know that we will need a new kind of body to live in heaven.

51. But listen, I tell you this secret: We will not all die, but we will all be changed.

A mystery is something you cannot know unless it is revealed to you. Paul was shown the secret that the ones who are living when Jesus returns will not die but will be changed into spiritual bodies

52 – 53

It will only take a split–second. We will be changed as quickly as an eye blinks. This will happen when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound and those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we will all be changed.

This body that will ruin must clothe itself with something that will never ruin. And this body that dies must clothe itself with something that will never die.

Now we see that they will rise with spiritual bodies when Jesus takes us up in the rapture.

We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet Him ahead of those who have died.

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves.

Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:15 – 17

54 – 56

So this body that ruins will clothe itself with that which never ruins. And this body that dies will clothe itself with that which never dies. When this happens, then what Isaiah said will be made true: “Death, where is your victory [sting]? Death’s power to hurt is sin. The power of sin is the law.

The devil uses the things of death to bring sin into human nature. But when we overcome sin, we are not afraid of death. Death is an enemy but a crippled one. When God’s people die they are not prisoners of death. When an insect leaves its stinger in you it will die.

Death is destroyed forever in victory. Isaiah 25:8

Death, where is your power to hurt? Hosea 13:14

57 – 58

But we thank God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So my dear brothers, stand strong. Do not let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. You know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.

There will always be some kind of trouble when we do anything for the Lord. We should expect to be attacked as the devil tries to get revenge when we come against his kingdom.
People will say, “You are wasting your time!” Our work is in the Lord and not in ourselves.